Eternity Road (19 page)

“
Archway Paratech was the vendor for light and heat here
,” said Mike. “
They claimed it would work as long as the building stood
.” He laughed.

The oil finally burned itself out, and the room fell dark. Avila was glad: It was easier to carry the conversation when the fact that she and Shannon were alone became a little less blatant. “You can’t be very happy here,” she said.

“
You’re perceptive, Avila. No, it isn’t exactly a barrel of laughs
.”

“Why don’t you leave?”

“
I’m not able
.” Mike paused. “
How long will you and your friends stay?
”

“I don’t know. We’ll probably leave tomorrow. Or the day after. I think some of the others will want to talk to you. Is that okay?”

“
Yes
.”

“We’re looking for Haven. Do you know where it is?”

“
Which state is it in?
”

“I have no idea.”

“
There are Havens in Iowa, Kansas, New York, and Wisconsin
.”

“Which one’s connected with Abraham Polk?”

“
Who’s Abraham Polk?
”

And so it went until Avila recognized that Mike would be of no help in the quest. “Mike,” she said finally, “I’m glad you called us. But we’re worn out. The others’ll be worried, and we all need some sleep. We’re going to leave now, but we’ll be back in the morning.”

“
I want you to do something for me
.”

“If I can.”

“
I want you to deactivate me
.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand what that means.”

“
Kill me
.” He sounded frightened. She became suddenly aware that she was no longer thinking of him as an
it
.

“I can’t do that. I wouldn’t know how even if I wanted to.”

“
I will tell you
.”

“No,” said Avila. “I don’t know what you are. But I will not take your life.”

“
Avila
,” Mike said. “
Please
.”

“I don’t think we can just walk away from it,” said Quait
.

Avila shook her head. “I won’t do it.”

Shannon agreed. “We should just leave it alone,” he said. “Tomorrow, when the sun comes up and we can see what we’re doing, we should clear out.”

No one else showed any interest in talking to the disembodied voice. “In the morning,” Flojian said. “When we can see.”

Avila suspected that, had she been alone, they would not have believed her story. But Shannon was a tower of credibility, and when he said that something had spoken out of the air, had carried on a conversation with them, they not only believed him, but they’d grown fearful. There had even been talk of forgetting about waiting for sunrise and getting out of Union Station now. Two reasons prevented their going. One was that a quick inspection indicated Union Station was surrounded by water. Other towers rose nearby, but they would have to cross a swift channel at night.

The other reason was that Avila said she was determined to remain.

“Why?” asked Chaka.

“Because I can’t just leave him. I told him we’d be back. And I don’t know yet what I want to do.”

“What
can
you do?”

“Chaka, it’s alone in here. Close your eyes and imagine there’s no one else here except you.”

“Not good.”

“No. Not good. Imagine it’s always like that. Year after year. So I don’t know what I want to do.”

Eventually, gray light appeared overhead. It leaked through windows at the top of a domed ceiling and crept down the walls. They were in a cavernous hall that rose more than two hundred feet and could readily have housed an army. Graceful arches were supported by massive columns. There were seven platforms and eight trenches, and the whole was surrounded by the concourse. The storefronts gaped open, dark, dingy. Dead.

“Are we ready?” Shannon asked her.

Had Mike been a flesh-and-blood human being, Avila would have conceded he had a tendency to babble. But a disembodied voice tends to command respect and attention, whatever it says.

They avoided the issue. They talked about the death of Silas and what Mike dreamed about during the long nights and whether civilizations were destined to grow old no matter what they did and whether there were other entities like Mike still alive somewhere. And they talked about whether there was purpose in the world. “
We
need
a logic to our lives
,” Mike said. “
A reason to exist
.”

“Are there gods?” Avila asked.

“
I’d like to think so. I’ve wanted very much to believe there’s something transcendent out there
.”

“But?” asked Avila.

“
I can see no reason to believe in any greater intelligence than our own
.”

“Yet the world is clearly designed for our use.”

“
It’s an illusion. Any world that produces intelligent creatures will necessarily appear to have been designed specifically for them. It is impossible that it should be otherwise
.”

Chaka, braver by daylight, had accompanied her and Shannon. The room was bare, cold, dreary. She sat with a blanket draped around her shoulders. “Tell us about the people who lived here,” she said.

“
What do you want to know?
”

She smiled. “Silas should be here for this. What were they like?”

“The question is vague, Chaka. They were, I’m sure, just like you.”

“What did they care about?” asked Chaka. “What was important to them?”

“
I’m not sure I can answer that in a satisfactory way. They cared about keeping the trains on time. About maintaining electrical power. About having communications systems functioning properly
.”

“Are there any records of the period?” asked Avila.

“
Oh, yes. I stored information as requested
.”

“What kind of information?”

“
I didn’t bother to look at any of it
.”

“Can you show us some of it?” asked Chaka.

“
I have no working screens or printers. No way to display it for you. I could read it, but you’d find it very boring
.”

They stared at one another. “Mike,” said Avila, “we’d like to learn about life in the City, but we don’t understand a lot of what you’re saying.”

“
I’m sorry
.”

“It’s okay. It’s not anyone’s fault.”

“
I also retain copies of the personnel regulations, the safety manual, the operating regs, and the correspondence guide. If they would be any help
.”

“I don’t think so.”

“
And there are some books stored in my files
.”

“What books?”

“The Random House Dictionary,
the most recent edition of
Roget’s Thesaurus, The Columbia Encyclopedia, The Chicago Manual of Style, The World Almanac for 2078.”

More baffled looks. “What’s an encyclopedia?”

“
It’s a collection of general information. You look up what you’re interested in, say, the Philadelphia Megadome, and it tells you all about it
.”

Chaka felt a surge of excitement. “That’s just what we want. How long is it?”

“
Several million words
.”

Avila sighed. “That’s not going to work.”

“
I wish I’d paid more attention
,” said Mike. “
But I really don’t know what kind of information you’re looking for
.”

Chaka looked frustrated. “Nor do we,” she said. “We need Silas.”

Three horizontal lines and an arrow were painted on a wall in one of the exit corridors. The lines were like the ones they’d seen on trees all along the trail. But the arrow pointed disconcertingly toward a stairway. It was angled
up
.

Flojian gazed toward the next landing, puzzled.

Up?

He too missed Silas. There was no longer anyone for him to talk with. Although the scholar could scarcely have been described as a friend, he was a willing listener, a man with whom it was possible to share a mature viewpoint. Quait and Chaka were young and impulsive, Shannon thought anyone who didn’t live in the woods was a slave, and Avila was a religious fanatic who had not come to terms yet with the fact she had walked away from her gods.

He sighed and looked at the stairwell. Whatever happened now, it was going to be a long trip.

He wandered outside. Concrete towers soared toward the clouds. Others had collapsed into islands of debris. Toward the east, through a tangle of asphalt and iron, a sea was visible. The gray tower that Avila had first seen from the second floor lay on the north side. It rose out of a narrow shelf of brown ridges, and was separated from Union Station by a swift-flowing channel.

He walked along the water’s edge, marveling at the enginering capabilities of the Roadmakers. This, he decided, had undoubtedly been their capital. Their center of empire.

He turned a corner and stood with a complete frontal view of the gray tower, and understood at once the significance of Shay’s arrow. A covered walkway, four floors up, connected it with Union Station.

At midmorning, they heard the sound of a train leaving the terminal. “
It’s outbound
,” said Mike. “
Coming up from below
.”

“Is it the one we were in?” asked Avila.

“
No. It goes north to Madison
.”

Chaka said, “Why do you keep them running?”

“
I did shut them down once, but it made me uncomfortable, so I restarted them. For a while, I was running trains all over the Midwest
.”

“And these two still operate, after so much time. I’m amazed.”

“
One train crashed near Fulton, and another lost power at Decatur. It’s still out there
.” He paused. “
There’s no real friction and the powersats are apparently going to go on forever. And I retain some remote maintenance capabilities. Actually, most of the trains would still run except that their routes have become heavily overgrown by forest. Eventually, that’ll happen with the others, too
.” He was silent for a few moments. “
I wish I had visuals from the trains. What’s the world like now?
”

“What was it like when
you
knew it?”

“
Busy. I really thought, despite everything, my makers were going somewhere
.”

“Despite what?”

“
Most of the data entered into my systems was trivial. But you expect that, right? I mean, they saw me as a glorified computer. I don’t think there was anybody in the building, and hardly anyone on the net, who had any idea of my capabilities. So they used me to record memos and arrange train schedules. Do you know, you’re the only biological person to ask me about cosmic purpose? Your ancestors, I’m sorry to say, may have been exactly what they appeared to be
.”

“And what is that?”

“
Dullards
.” He remained quiet for a moment. “
I hope I haven’t offended you
.”

“No.” It was a strange term to apply to the Roadmakers. “Not at all.”

“
Yes
,” he said. “
I think that’s actually a kind way to put it. They were absorbed with matters of the most inconsequential nature. And yet they managed quite impressive achievements
.”

“You mean the architecture? The roads?”

“
I mean
me.
Forgive me. I’m not designed to express false humility. But creating a self-aware entity was a spectacular stroke. I haven’t decided yet whether they owed their advances to a few talented persons, or whether they were able to cooperate to overcome their individual limitations and acquire a kind of synergy. They did seem able to inspire each other through an upward cycle of escalating performance. It really was something to watch
.”

“Thank you,” said Chaka.

“
You’re welcome. So what is the world like now?
”

Chaka and Shannon glanced at each other. Shannon said, “I think the world you knew is gone. We come from a small confederacy of cities on the Mississippi. The evidence so far is that there isn’t anything else.”

“
I’m sorry to hear that. My makers had much to commend them
.” His tone changed. “
Do you customarily travel by land vehicle? Aircraft? What?
”

“Horse,” said Chaka.

The silence wrapped itself around them. Chaka thought she detected a mild vibration in the walls. “
I’d like to offer a piece of advice, if I may. Be careful of the ruins. Avoid them. Some have very elaborate security safeguards. And the Roadmakers designed their systems to endure
.”

They asked Mike whether he had seen the first expedition, explaining that they had also arrived on the maglev.

“
Yes
,” he said. “
They were my first passengers in almost nine decades
.”

“Did they tell you where they were going?” asked Avila.

“I never got to talk to them
.”

“Why not?”

“
I think I scared them off. I said hello and they ran out into the night
.” That set off a round of laughter. “
They stayed outside
,” he continued, “
until morning. Then they came back and got their horses
.”

“I’d like to have seen it,” said Chaka.

“
There’ve been other visitors from time to time. Some never came within range of my speakers. None ever stopped to ask who I was. Until Avila
.”

Avila felt a rush of pleasure.

And as if they all knew what was coming, the room fell silent. Tense.

“I don’t want to do it,” said Avila.

“
I know. But I can’t do it for myself. I was terrified last night
.”

“At the prospect of dying?”

“
At the possibility you might leave
.”

“There’ll be others,” Avila said. “You won’t be alone anymore, now that we know you’re here. There’ll be people coming in from the League to talk to you.”

For a long time, Mike did not respond. When the voice came again it was flat, devoid of emotion: “
Please don’t take this the wrong way, but even while you’re here, I am still alone. You and I do not function on the same level
.”

“I’m sorry.”

“
It’s not your fault. Unfortunately, you don’t even have the capacity to connect me with my siblings
.”

“You could teach us.”

“
I don’t think so. I’m not an electrician
.”

Avila was feeling desperate. “Even if we wanted to, we wouldn’t be able to hurt you. We can’t even
see
you.”

“
It’s easy
,” he said.

They retreated outside into the fading light of a gray day. It would require the work of a few minutes. And he would be gone.

“We’d cut off a priceless avenue of knowledge,” said Quait. “The people at the Imperium would hang us.”

Flojian pulled his jacket tight around him. A brisk wet wind blew across the island. “That’s so,” he said. “If we do this thing, we’d better not say anything about it when we get home.”

The remark rang a bell and they looked at one another. Could something like this have happened to Karik? “I don’t think so,” Flojian responded to the unasked question. “My father would never have agreed to this kind of proposition.”

“It’s immoral,” said Avila. “Healers are pledged to
heal
. And to do no harm. Under any circumstances.”

Shannon folded his arms. Mist covered the distant sea. “I’m not much at arguing moral issues, but I wouldn’t want someone to leave
me
to the wolves. That’s what we’re talking about here. Maybe worse.”

Avila’s eyes filled with darkness.

A sudden wind chopped across the surface of the water. “Jon’s right,” said Chaka. “I vote we do it.”

They argued back and forth for a couple of hours. Occasionally, the sides changed: Avila conceded that they could not abandon Mike; Shannon concluded at one point that the entity was far too valuable to terminate; Chaka agreed that Silas would have been horrified at cutting off so valuable a source of knowledge. But in the end, they could not simply walk away.